Tech firms announce video anti-piracy technology

NDS, STMicroelectronics and Thomson will develop new encryption technology designed to foil video piracy. Known as the secure video processor (SVP) platform, the technology is targeted to media companies as a way to protect their content from unauthorized copying and redistribution.

The new technology, Reuters reported, will allow media companies to encrypt their content with digital rights management (DRM) specifications and have it unscrambled for viewing solely by devices embedded with SVP-enabled chips.

The companies hope enough SVP-enabled video playback devices and TV set-top boxes will hit the market in coming years so as to allow consumers to transport the encrypted content to specially equipped SVP devices for playback.

NDS has developed the anti-piracy software component for SVP. Beginning next year, Thomson will embed SVP-enabled chips developed by STMicro into its video playback devices and set-top boxes.